Watch out. The next time you're in line at the grocery there could be a playwright lurking nearby. A moment of casual conversation might just reappear onstage somewhere soon.

That's because new plays — many by local writers — are popping up everywhere these days. Eight Capital Region writers are having their work performed tonight through Sunday in "Confetti Fest," a program of short plays presented by Confetti Stage in Albany. A similar program of seven short plays was performed last weekend by the Circle Theater Players at the Sand Lake Center for the Arts. And coming up Nov. 2-5, Capital Repertory Theatre and Proctors host "Next Act," the second annual summit of new plays and musicals.

"When playwrights get to see their work onstage, it encourages them to start producing more plays and also helps them get better at their craft," said Neilson Jones, artistic director of Confetti Stages. "I'm in awe of how some of our regulars come in with a new story every year."

Confetti Stage has been offering an annual program of short new plays since its first season in 2005. After that inaugural year, according to Jones, "Confetti Fest" has been exclusively focused on local writers. "We're lucky to live in this area immersed with so much talent," he says. "I hope everybody feels that way when they see it. It's always a very fun night."

The range of material Confetti presents in one evening can be staggering — comedy, drama, romance and tragedy, as well as unexpected hybrids of these genres. Just as diverse is the background and life station of the writers. Jones says this year's contributors range in age from college students to retirees and none of the playwrights have full-time careers in theater. That's in keeping with the nature of community theater: all of Confetti's actors, directors and stagehands have day jobs in other fields.

A surprise sometimes happens when it comes time for new plays to be submitted and a company member who's better known for talents as an actor shows up with an original script. For example, Matthew Side will be performing in "Mirror Bowl," a two-character drama by Sunny da Silva. But in the same night, Side also gets to observe performances of his own new comedy, "Casting Call."

Having folks play dual roles, onstage and off, isn't uncommon in community theater troupes like Confetti Stage. But it's essential when eight plays are mounted in one night. Lots of people may get a moment or two in the spotlight, but everybody's expected to lift and tote some scenery at some point.

Forty people have contributed to bringing this year's "Confetti Fest" to life, says Vivian Hwang, a Confetti board member. As the largest undertaking of the season, it serves not just aspiring playwrights but becomes a convenient means of outreach.

Hwang vividly recalls that her own entry into local theater — landing a role in the 2008 festival. "I moved here for school and was pretty miserable until I found this community," she says. "I really enjoyed it and thought to audition for the next show and it goes from there."

Over at Capital Rep, a professional company, the role of community also comes into play and in some surprising ways. First, to underscore the informality of the events, there's extra hospitality for the audience. Refreshments and discussion are offered prior to each of the five events, most of which take place at the GE Theater at Proctors.

Selecting which works to present at this year's "Next Act" was particularly hard. Confetti had 30 local playwrights submit short works and eight were chosen. Capital Rep, by contrast, put out a national call and received 300 submissions of full-length plays, according to producing artistic director Maggie Mancinelli-Cahill. That's more than double the number of scripts received for last year's festival.

"It's a very arduous review. My eyes were so tired in September," says Mancinelli-Cahill, who perused each submission, as did Margaret E. Hall, also of Capital Rep. But they weren't alone in the process. Fourteen other theater professionals were divided into teams to make recommendations for several rounds of elimination.

No matter how you slice it, that's a lot of reading. Typically in the theater world, though, a new play is given 15 minutes of attention before it's put aside or passed along for another round of consideration, explains Mancinelli-Cahill.

The opening event in this year's "Next Act" summit invites audiences in on that process. During "The First 15: Be A Literary Manager," five new plays will be given the appointed amount of time followed by open discussion from the readers and audience.

"With a successful play, look at the first five minutes. If you don't catch the audience by then, it will take you 20 minutes to recapture them," explains Mancinelli-Cahill. "The critical thing is that the dialogue has to be good. There were a lot of good subjects, but if you can't pick up the conflict in 15 pages, the play's in trouble already."

Capturing the full attention of the Capital Rep team this year were two plays and a musical. Another play from last year's summit will also be brought back for a second look, making for a total of four full-length works. (See schedule.) Each of these will be given "staged readings" with actors working from scripts.

Mancinelli-Cahill considers them all to be work-in-process, saying "all the plays are going to need work. These are not finished pieces."

While each of the 300 original submissions was read "blind" (with no indication of the author's name), when all was said and done, Mancinelli-Cahill was stunned by the many regional connections to be found in the final selections.

Progressing up the Hudson Valley, here's the lineup: Hope Villanueva of New York City, is represented by "Pacific," which deals with the aftermath of the 2011 tsunami in Japan; Jake Holmes, half of the writing team for the musical "The Thing About Time," hales from Beacon; "Dancing Backward," about an aging choreographer, is written by John Fiorillo of Chatham; and Sherry Kramer, author of the yuppie comedy "How Water Behaves," lives in Dorset, Vt., and teaches at Bennington College.

More Information

If you go

"Confetti Fest"

An evening of short plays by Capital Region writers presented by Confetti Stage

The plays: "Agnes' Birthday" by Valerie Kavanaugh, "Casting Call" by Matthew Side, "Bookmark" by Stephen Henel, "Face the Music and Dance" by Lauren Ogden, "Mirror Bowl" by Sunny da Silva, "Miss Dickinson Entertains at Home" by Marty Egan, "The Man Upstairs" by Fred Sahner, "Violence in the Workplace" by Justin Alvis